Metal Slug Advance

" ...Wait, didn't I just kill yo*is killed*"

To be perfectly honest I'm not as excited about a classic shooter series coming to GBA anymore. After the hell spawn port of R-type 3, and rather flimsy Gradius galaxies my hopes of a receiving a truly solid shooter from my GBA have dithered. Fortunately SNK has somewhat lifted my hopes on this predicament with Metal slug advance. The popular arcade series makes its debut on the GBA's small screen and even with it's flaws brings a fun and challenging experience for shooter veterans, fans of the series, and newcomers alike.

Game play

Metal slug is you're typical go right and shoot everything in your way, but SNK has still made changes and added a little bit of depth to the classic formula. At the beginning players will be given a choice of two characters that have no difference other than appearance and gender, that they will use for the entire game inside the file they are saved on, once done players proceed to the base camp were they are given the following options: Mission which will be used for selecting a level, Card where you can view the cards you have collected during the play of the levels, Prisoner where Metal slug's traditional POWs rescues are kept record, and a place to save your progress and quit the game. Those who are familiar with the series will instantly notice the health bar at the top of the screen, breaking away from the standard “one hit your gone” element these games are known for. This is a very welcome addition considering how difficult this game can be and even with health you're in for one challenge that will definitely test your skill… And at time your patients. Another new feature is the collectable cards that are scattered throughout the game's five levels. These cards separate into two types: Ones that offer simply information about items or are commemorations for satisfying certain conditions within the game. The others can actually be equipped to improve health, weapon ammo, or unlock other special functions. This sounds appealing but achieving these are quite far from enjoyable. The reason being is once you are defeated after finding a card you lose it and must find it again and beat the level on without dieing in order to get it back, this is especially bad since enemies will actually respawn when the screen scrolls past their spawning spot, creating frustrating situations when trying to dodge a shot that forces you to go back from where you came, giving even more trouble then what you were already dealing with. And with how difficult of a game this is getting cards is simply not worth it and on top of it the upgrades are so ridiculously hard to get that you would pretty much have to master the levels to get them to begin with. In truth, the card system could have been done a little better and although it does add some replay for completist, doesn't really bring much of an incentive to play it again.

Veterans will appreciate the presence of the one of the series trademarks: The metal slug (which is a big armored tank) and Air slug (A jet) that players can hop in and cause mass carnage, however the appearance of these vehicles are quite scarce only appearing in a couple of the levels for a very short remainder of time, which is rather disappointing, since ripping through enemy lines in these vehicles where one of the things that made the series seem so fun. To add to this there are also some imbalances with weapons that can be picked up during missions. The variety in these weapons are a nice amount ranging to a total of six different weapons with limited ammo that will reverted to your hand gun once depleted, only thing is nearly the only weapons you ever find are the heavy machine gun or the rocket launcher (Which the announcer mispronounces.) and many of the weapons really only appear in one part of the first level in the whole game which seems plain sloppy, and to add insult to the injury when you do get a different weapon it's usually when you either don't need it or won't help with the situation at all. Fortunately for you there is infinite continues and checkpoints throughout the levels to compensate for the game's high difficulty.

Visuals

In the aspect of graphics Metal slug advance is defiantly above average although far from the best. Animations from the series recycled sprites like the enemy soldiers have been slightly toned down but still look nice and the background are colorful and detailed although they may be a washed out on the Nintendo DS backlit screen. However, one thing this game lacks is the humor that was riddled throughout the previous titles, another thing that the Metal slug series had was charm and successfully mixed a serious theme such as war and made it halfway laughable, no longer can your character get fat by eating to many food items and seeing soldiers getting maimed by random things doesn't really happen in this game. Regardless the graphics are pleasing to the eye.

Audio

Not a bad soundtrack but at the same time nothing really stands out either. While most of the music is somewhat catchy it isn't really memorable and the sound effects aren't exactly what I'd call great. Often are they drowned out by the background music and don't really sound impressive to begin with, especially the sound for slashing an enemy at close range… It sounds like a zipper being opened…

Overall

Although while not really making a blockbuster SNK has managed to create a fun and challenging game that will make any shooter veteran or fan happy, however some new to the series may want to be cautious of it due to the high difficulty and not a whole lot of replay value, but for what it does do Metal slug advance does it well. Compared to a lot of really bad GBA games out there this one stands out more and does show these games can still be fun despite some large scale imperfections. Overall Metal slug advance is most certainly a good game, just not exactly great.

Overall score: 7.5

Pros
+Good graphics
+ Responsive controls

Cons
- It's short
- Can be ridiculously hard due to high respawn rate of enemies
- The upgrades are too difficult to get and for the most part aren't worth it killing replay

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/18/05